Exactly. We have the UR4U-MDVR-CHD2 remote; no "setup" button. Tried wiki directions substituting the "OK/SEL" button for "setup", but no go. CharterJames, any thoughts?

There isn't one - for setting up the remote you hold down the function and the OK/Sel until the function binks and use chnl up or chnl down to cycle through codes - the device should cut off when the right code is there (helping note - you can slowly work your way back one at a time once it's cut off and hit the power button to turn it back on and make sure you have the right code) - once you have the correct one hit the Function button again to program

Unfortunately like most universal remotes (Particularly the ones we've had) most the time the setup button if there is one won't control the menu options on a TV etc (I've used about 4 different ones on my magnavox and only one would do it)

For DCT box setup hitting Menu twice (first time brings up quick menu) takes you into the full box menu.

As for the instructions on the 30 second skip, those are definitely not written for this model - per my post I'm taking it up with MFG - you can hit their website at www.universalremote.com - most of our remotes are from Universal

Views & opinions stated here are strictly those of Me and not Charter Communications.

Only the TiVoHD supports M-Cards for now. Supposedly, this will be fixed with a software upgrade for the Series III sometime in the future. However, there doesn't appear to be any major issues authorizing M-cards from what i have read.

One of the TIVO III developers assured me that support for the M Card was developed, tested and released - however given the lack of success I've seen with it, I'd say something isn't quite there. - the M Card will autho just fine, it just won't authorize both tuners with one card... which is the whole point of M-Card VS pre 7/07 Standard cards.

Views & opinions stated here are strictly those of Me and not Charter Communications.

I looked at the Tivos but became concerned about the digital switching issue. I'm not an expert on it, but as I undestood what I read, some cable companies are beginning to use (or are considering using in the future) a new digital switching system to save bandwidth. It involves moving the location of certain channels around to match demand to available bandwidth, and if your set top box or dvr isn't capable of communicating with the cable system's central computers, it won't be able to find the channels as they shift around. Again, based only on what I read (not any expertise or knowledge of my own), Tivo does not currently have the technology to function properly with a cable system that uses the digital switching, although Tivo apparently says they are working on a fix. I was concerned that I might be buying a $600 paperweight (up front box cost plus 3 year pre-paid service) if I were to buy a TivoHD only to have it unable to locate channels on my cable system.

As I understand it, TIVO is in the process of setting up a USB attachment that will give the SIII (and HD) the functionality it needs for 2 way support of SDV.

Nutshell for SDV - it's a VOD like system for "live" streams - in VOD the box requests a title from the menu and a series of Video servers will stream it out and your box is sent to a hidden virtual channel where you can view the stream.

In SDV, the idea is to save bandwidth by showing only the channels being watched.... Let's take the MLB channels for example - most of thier traffic occurs between 7pm and 1am. Then you also have a large number of kids channels that get most of their traffic from 6am to 7pm. We'd put them all in a switched system and the box would tell the system - Hey I want to watch "Noggin" - so the system sees where it's streaming Noggin out at and switched you there. But if no one is watching "Noggin" that space might be used for someone watching the Cubs play baseball... If one person is streaming the channel, all the system has to do is add all future requests to the same channel...

The big thing is it needs that 2 way ability and the program that will talk back and forth to tell us what you are watching and when you are no longer watching it.

The good news is Charter isn't jumping on this wildly... Time Warner seems to be the front runner on this technology (and I imagine we are all to happy to let them swim out and find all the sharks before we jump in the ocean...)

So the TIVO shouldn't become a $600 paperweight just because of SDV - unless of course you're one of the unlucky souls in a system that is diving into that shark infested water... Hopefully by the time SDV becomes widespread TIVO will have the equipment in place to work with it.

Views & opinions stated here are strictly those of Me and not Charter Communications.

Is there any way to program the Charter 6416's remote to perform the "30 second skip" as I have read can be done with Comcast's model?

I'm not aware of any 30 second skip feature availible on a 64xx 32xx series... Thought I greatly miss that feature (we had it when Moxi first rolled, then they changed it due to media pressure, then 4.1 allowed users to change the time to their preference)

I've noticed that instant replay is duplicated in the page down button... but Page up doesn't give you a quick jump forward - for now I'll say no - but I'll see if I can get any info from the remote MFG to see if such a code can be programmed on the ABCD buttons

Views & opinions stated here are strictly those of Me and not Charter Communications.

Comcast representatives have stated on this forum that Motorola recently released a firmware to support encrypted eSATA drive expansion. It was also stated that Motorola has no intention of ever supporting USB drive expansion.

Have you heard anything about that firmware, or the possibility of Charter using it this year or next?

I have not heard anything on that, though I'd hit several major people in the Charter Digital/Technicial operations about getting it ASAP as we currently have moxi's and 6416s and Marketing simply pushes both as "DVR Service" - so alot of CSRs etc don't really know the differences... having a *major* feature such as external expansion on one, but not another is to me a definite issue.

I do know there are plans to upgrade the guide soon The Current I-guide is A-24... and there have been bugs since going to the I-guide (A23 was the first version) platform. How soon it is before we see A25, I don't know, but I know when we upgrade the Guide we tend to also upgrade VOD apps and base firmware. Currently my biggest beef with A24 is memory fragmentation on the boxes - this can cause VOD errors on the oldest boxes which have the least memory... and the only resolution for such errors is to power cycle the box. I'm pretty certain this is a limitation of the A24 guide as the problem seems to be happening on at least 2 different VOD platforms.

Views & opinions stated here are strictly those of Me and not Charter Communications.

Add 30-Second Skip
The following technique can be used to map an unused or unneeded button on the "silver" remote to the 30-second skip command. Current versions of the i-Guide software will skip forward 30 seconds into a recording when this command is sent. A good choice is the 'A / Lock' button since many users don't need that function; you can feel both the '15-second-back' and '30-second-skip' buttons with one finger and move between them without looking. Another option is to reprogram the '15-second back' button, since PgDn already provides that functionality.

1. Press the "Cable" button at the top of the remote to put it into Cable Box control mode.
2. Press and hold the "Setup" button until the "Cable" button blinks twice.
3. Type in the code 994. The "Cable" button will blink twice.
4. Press (do not hold) the "Setup" button.
5. Type in the code 00173.
6. Press whatever button you want to map the 30-second skip command to (ex: A / Lock). The "Cable" button will blink twice if successful.

I'm having no luck doing this with a UR4U-MDVR-CHD2 - I even got a fresh one and checked out a few other options. - Looking at the instructions this isn't intented for our most common "Silver" remotes.

I've sent an email to the remote MFG to see if there is a way to correctly program this function on the UR4U-MDVR-CHD2 (which also uses the same codes as the Explorer 8000 one for most functions)

Views & opinions stated here are strictly those of Me and not Charter Communications.

One of the TIVO III developers assured me that support for the M Card was developed, tested and released - however given the lack of success I've seen with it, I'd say something isn't quite there. - the M Card will autho just fine, it just won't authorize both tuners with one card... which is the whole point of M-Card VS pre 7/07 Standard cards.

Only the TiVo HD has achieved M-UDCP host certification (for M-cards). The S3 hasn't been certified yet thus the current software doesn't support M-cards in multistream mode. I think the confusion may be that the TiVo HD is considered part of the "S3" platform. But it is not the same as a Series III TiVo. Why TiVo had to make the names so confusing is beyond me.

Only the TiVo HD has achieved M-UDCP host certification (for M-cards). The S3 hasn't been certified yet thus the current software doesn't support M-cards in multistream mode. I think the confusion may be that the TiVo HD is considered part of the "S3" platform. But it is not the same as a Series III TiVo. Why TiVo had to make the names so confusing is beyond me.

Ahhh, Actually I think the confusion might be certfication VS someone @ TIVO telling me that in their test labs they got it working - I wasn't aware SIII wasn't certified. I was simply told by one of thier lab gurus who monitored TIVO Community forums when I posted the issues I had there of what they tested with their "lab" DAC. - and to be completely fair to them, they said "in theory" that it should work

I'd love to get a my hands on an HD for testing, however unless a customer in my area gets one and invites me over, chances are, I won't

Views & opinions stated here are strictly those of Me and not Charter Communications.

CharterJames, Thanks for clarifying the PIP question. The Motorola site lists "HD Picture-in-Picture capable" for the 64XX series. Too bad it is not capable, as that would be a nice feature.

No problem - I would like to think that functionality is built into the dual tuner boxes, but I think we'll have to wait on TV Guide to either set up the guide functionality or some sort of Moto firmware to unlock any box based PIP. Given my experience with Box based Closed Captioning, I think I'll stick with the TV PIP functionality for now.

I know I got some giggles last week, as I keep a computer attached to my HD LCD - it's more of a toy than a real media center... I use it for my MMORPG Guid Teamspeak Server and occasionally to play music or videos through my home theater setup. We wanted to keep an eye on the news so we had that in the PIP window and the computer in the background... Then when my buddy brought over his machine I had him use the connections to LAN game with a Music choice channel on the HT (in in the window)

On the Subject of PIP - it's my understanding that the RCA inputs on this series DO work... but for now they only serve as a "pass through" input when the box is off. Of course that's pretty lame considering if you turn off the 6416 you can't record.

Views & opinions stated here are strictly those of Me and not Charter Communications.

Anyone else have problems with blank recordings happening randomly? I had this happen on the older Motorola 2 tuner HD-DVR, so was just upgraded to the DCH6416. Recordings seemed fine, then this weekend a game I recorded was blank. The recording takes up space on the DVR, but the screen is blank/black and I can't FF past time stamp 0:00.

On another note, I have a Harmony remote and was able to download the 30 sec skip feature when I set up the remote online, and it works on the new box just like it worked on the old one. For about a year, that functionality was turned off, but then suddenly the button started working again. Love it for NFL games - right after a tackle you can jump to the next snap.

Anyone else have problems with blank recordings happening randomly? I had this happen on the older Motorola 2 tuner HD-DVR, so was just upgraded to the DCH6416. Recordings seemed fine, then this weekend a game I recorded was blank. The recording takes up space on the DVR, but the screen is blank/black and I can't FF past time stamp 0:00.

On another note, I have a Harmony remote and was able to download the 30 sec skip feature when I set up the remote online, and it works on the new box just like it worked on the old one. For about a year, that functionality was turned off, but then suddenly the button started working again. Love it for NFL games - right after a tackle you can jump to the next snap.

Have you powercycled it? I'm curious to know if it might just be one of those odd programming glitches that incorrectly report recording percentage etc - The only other thing I would think it might be would be a failure of the second tuner, but that would be very odd for you get to two boxes in a row with the same problem.

Views & opinions stated here are strictly those of Me and not Charter Communications.

Hello. I have a DCH 6416. First try at using the front panel A/V inputs to display digicam pics. No joy. Do I need to activate somehow? Does
Charter need to do? Do they function at all? Thanks.

As I understand it the AV RCA inputs only work as a pass-through - they will pass signal through only when the box is turned off. Try it with the box turned off - if that doesn't work try the rear inputs (front may be disabled entirely) if neither work while the unit is turned off then they are completely disabled.

I've not experimented with this, as most people aren't interested in using them while the box is turned off. The USB does not function for any sort of input at this time.

Views & opinions stated here are strictly those of Me and not Charter Communications.

I've got an odd issue with my Comcast DCT6416-III. I have tried connecting the box to my TV via HDMI, which it is supposed to support. TV is a Mitsubishi WD-52725. Unfortunately for some strange reason, any time I turn my TV off and back on, I get nothing but static on the HDMI input until I unplug and replug the HDMI cable and then it works fine. I thought it was the TV and had them send out a tech. The tech brought in an upscaling HDMI DVD player and it did not have the same problem. I have replaced my old cable box with a new one (I think, I've swapped boxes several times but I'm pretty certain I have for this too). None of it seems to have really made a difference, though. Any ideas?

Has anyone had an issue with the season pass recording the first week on the HD channel then the following week switching to the SD channel even tho I have told it to ONLY record on this channel? ie Prison Break on 704 in HD but it recorded on 4 in SD...total PITA

Any update on getting esata drives working on the 6416? I just hooked up a new Seagate 320gig esata drive tonight and it powers up the hard drive, but I don't seem to see additional space. I have rebooted my dvr as well.

I didn't see any options in the menu for formatting an external drive or adding it for recording space.

James, any news on when this will be enabled or how this should work? I am on Charter with a 6416 III.

Thanks for the reply.
I read on this forum (or maybe another one) that someone with a Motorola box had just plugged theirs in and it started formatting and working, so maybe it is determined by the particular market?
Worth a shot. If not I can always use the external HD on my laptop...

Thanks for the reply.
I read on this forum (or maybe another one) that someone with a Motorola box had just plugged theirs in and it started formatting and working, so maybe it is determined by the particular market?
Worth a shot. If not I can always use the external HD on my laptop...

What do the firewire ports and USB 2.0 ports do?

I wish this really worked. I called Charter Tech support and they said that the USB port should be enabled for external hard drives. I told them that I've read on the forums that this doesn't work and they kept telling me that it should work. I tried the diagnostics menu (CBL, then power button, then OK/SEL). Going down to d11 (Interface/Port Status) page it shows my USB external Hard drive.

So I am stuck with an external hard drive that I just bought for this and can't use. I don't see why Motorola enabled this for the Moxi but not the DCH.

I'm having no luck doing this with a UR4U-MDVR-CHD2 - I even got a fresh one and checked out a few other options. - Looking at the instructions this isn't intented for our most common "Silver" remotes.

I've sent an email to the remote MFG to see if there is a way to correctly program this function on the UR4U-MDVR-CHD2 (which also uses the same codes as the Explorer 8000 one for most functions)

In the owners manual of the UR4U-MDVR-CHD2 remote it says that the A,B,C,D buttons are pre set by your cable provider. So apparently we have four buttons that could be real useful (especially the 30 second skip) but Charter refuses to set them up. Or am I missing something here??

Personally I would like to move the mute button above the vulume up/down and put the 30 second skip where the mute button was. Right above the replay button.

I've got an odd issue with my Comcast DCT6416-III. I have tried connecting the box to my TV via HDMI, which it is supposed to support. TV is a Mitsubishi WD-52725. Unfortunately for some strange reason, any time I turn my TV off and back on, I get nothing but static on the HDMI input until I unplug and replug the HDMI cable and then it works fine. I thought it was the TV and had them send out a tech. The tech brought in an upscaling HDMI DVD player and it did not have the same problem. I have replaced my old cable box with a new one (I think, I've swapped boxes several times but I'm pretty certain I have for this too). None of it seems to have really made a difference, though. Any ideas?

Bicker's on the nose with this one - If it happens over several box swapouts, it's not the box, I'm pretty certain you're probably looking at a firmware issue on the TV (possibly an issue with the TV's HDMI input) - with luck it's just a quick flash update - either way if it's under warranty, have them check it out

Views & opinions stated here are strictly those of Me and not Charter Communications.